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Bot::WootOff 0.06
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NAME
Bot::WootOff - Poll woot.com during a woot-off and notify via IRC
SYNOPSIS
use Bot::WootOff;
my $bot = Bot::WootOff->new(
server => "irc.freenode.net",
channel => "#wootoff",
);
$bot->run();
DESCRIPTION
Bot::WootOff periodically polls woot.com during a woot-off and sends
messages to in IRC channel to alert the user of new items.
What, you don't know what woot.com is? It's a site that sells one item a
day at a discounted price. Once the item is sold out, the site runs idle
for the rest of the day. But every once in a while, it switches into a
mode called woot-off, where it keeps popping up new items as soon as the
lot of the previous item is sold. This is called a "Woot Off", and it's
something many people are looking forward to, as all items, and most of
all, the legendary "Bag of Crap", can be had a bargain price. If you
think all of this is silly, move on to the next CPAN module! Nice
meeting you! If you're a bargain hunter, continue reading.
If you notice that there's a woot-off going on on woot.com, simply start
your bot via the 'wootbot' script included in this module, like
wootbot -s irc.freenote.net -c '#wootoff'
or use the perl code in the SYNOPSIS section of this document. The bot
will start up, connect to the IRC server, and log into the channel
specified. It'll start polling woot.com in 30-second intervals until the
next item in the woot-off will be presented. At this point, it will post
a short item description to the IRC channel to alert the user of the
buying opportunity:
Trying to connect to server irc.freenode.net
Trying to connect to '#wootoff0538'
2009/05/13 23:17:36 Requesting http://www.woot.com
2009/05/13 23:17:36 Apple 8GB 4th Gen iPod Nano posted to #wootoff0538
The above output can be seen if you start "wootbot" in verbose mode,
using the "-v" option. It also prints status messages like
2009/05/13 23:36:23 Requesting http://www.woot.com
2009/05/13 23:36:24 Nothing changed
2009/05/13 23:36:54 Requesting http://www.woot.com
2009/05/13 23:36:54 Nothing changed
to STDOUT in regular intervals to let the user know what it's doing.
When it posts messages to the IRC channel specified, it will use the
nickname "wootbot" (unless you specify another nickname in the
constructor). The messages will look like
(11:41:29 PM) wootbot: Forever Flashlight III 4.99 http://www.woot.com
(11:44:32 PM) wootbot: Deluxe Charades Game 2.99 http://www.woot.com
Each message contains a link to woot.com, which will be displayed by IRC
clients like Pidgin in a clickable format, so that you can reach the
current offer with a single mouse click.
If someone in the channel says "!woot" then the bot will repeat its last
message. This is helpful if someone just joined the channel and wants to
know what the current item is.
All you have to do to receive these message is use an IRC client like
Pidgin, connect to the IRC server specified (irc.freenode.net by
default), log into the channel specified (#wootoffxxxx by default, where
xxxx is a random number so that all of you script kiddies using this
module won't step on other people's toes. Use a specific name like
#wootoff to connect to the actual channel specified), and enjoy the
incoming messages. Set up sounds and you'll be able to do useful work
while being interrupted with the latest bargains.
Extra tip: If your IRC window in Pidgin gets full and you want the
visual interruption of an empty window being filled, use CTRL-L to clear
the current window.
Methods
new()
The constructor takes the following arguments:
my $bot = Bot::WootOff->new(
irc_server => "irc.freenode.net",
irc_channel => "#wootoff",
irc_nick => "wootbot",
http_agent => (__PACKAGE__ . "/" . $VERSION),
http_alias => "wootoff-ua",
http_timeout => 60,
http_url => "http://www.woot.com",
poll_interval => 30,
Alias => "wootoff-bot",
spawn => 1,
);
Some of these parameters are specific to POE, the framework driving
the bot.
run()
This methods starts the bot, which usually runs until the program is
terminated.
EXAMPLES
$ wootbot -s irc.freenode.net -c '#wootoff'
LEGALESE
Copyright 2009 by Mike Schilli, all rights reserved. This program is
free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
same terms as Perl itself.
AUTHOR
2009, Mike Schilli